Monday, June 20, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

Now it's the Democrats' turn.

Following the Republican Party's lead, King County Democrats will convene next week in Bellevue to choose the candidates the party insists will be its official nominees for county offices this fall.

In the featured race, incumbent Metropolitan King County Council members Carolyn Edmonds, D-Shoreline, and Bob Ferguson, D-Seattle, thrown together by redistricting, are running hard to be the party's pick in the council's new 1st District.

But this is uncharted political territory; no one knows yet just what a victory at the June 28 "nominating convention" will signify. The courts, or perhaps the candidates themselves, will decide later this summer.

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt has suggested the loser should accept the convention's decision and not even file for office. He said the party may go to court to block anyone who isn't the convention's pick from filing as a Democrat.

Neither Ferguson nor Edmonds would discuss what they would do if their opponent wins the nomination. "I only have that kind of conversation with my wife," Ferguson said. "I'm just focused on winning this."

A similar convention June 11 split King County Republicans. Delegates picked Metropolitan King County Councilman Steve Hammond of Enumclaw over fellow Councilman Reagan Dunn of Bellevue in a contested race for the new nine-member council, down from the current 13 members.

Dunn said he might file anyway, prompting charges of disloyalty.

Parties' strategy

The conventions, which are being held in counties across the state with partisan races on the fall ballot, are part of the parties' strategy for overturning the state's new "top two" primary, approved by initiative last November.

Some background:

The top-two primary lets voters vote for candidates from any party; the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. It replaced a Montana-style primary, first used in September, that required voters to pick one party on the ballot and vote only for its candidates.

The parties, which favor the Montana system, have challenged the top-two primary's constitutionality in federal court. They also have asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly to rule that, under the top-two system, they should at least be permitted to decide which candidates carry their labels on the primary ballot.

That's why they're holding this month's nominating conventions.

State and county elections officials say the parties have no power to determine which candidates use their names. Zilly could rule as soon as mid-July, just days before filing for office opens.

If he orders the state to hold a Montana-style primary in September, the parties have said, they will use it rather than the conventions to choose their nominees. But it's also possible Zilly could legitimize the conventions or leave their legal status in limbo.

Differing conventions

Democrats are running their conventions a little differently than the Republicans ran theirs. Unlike the GOP, Democrats didn't hold precinct caucuses first to elect delegates. Instead, only precinct-committee officers will vote — and some will have more to say than others.

King County Democratic Chairwoman Susan Sheary said each officer will have one to nine votes, depending, in part, on what share of the precinct's presidential vote Al Gore received in 2000.

In Ferguson's and Edmonds' 1st District, which includes Northeast Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and Bothell, about 200 delegates will cast 940 total votes, she said.

Campaigning has been intense. Steve Zemke, a precinct-committee officer who will cast three votes, said both Ferguson and Edmonds have phoned and come to his home. He said he has received about 20 total campaign mailings from them.

Before redistricting, Edmonds represented about two-thirds of the new 1st District, Ferguson about one-third.

Edmonds, 51, has the endorsements of County Executive Ron Sims, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, four of the five other Democratic council members, and five of the area's six Democratic legislators. Some Democrats still resent Ferguson for defeating longtime County Councilwoman Cynthia Sullivan in a 2003 Democratic primary.

Ferguson endorsement

But earlier this month Ferguson, 40, nearly won the two-thirds vote needed for the endorsement of the Democratic organization in the 32nd Legislative District, which Edmonds once represented in Olympia.

Her campaign had raised about $78,000 through the end of May, Ferguson's about $58,000.

Ferguson said he hasn't given much thought to the party strategy behind the nominating conventions. "This is the process the party has laid out, so I'm pursuing it," he said.

"I think of it as a super juiced-up endorsement," Edmonds said. "I think we still have a primary in September."

Not all Democrats approve of the nominating conventions. Earlier this month six party officers in Jefferson County, including the county chair, resigned in a protest.

The process, which allows the county's 20 Democratic precinct-committee officers to pick the party's nominee for county clerk June 28, is "patently undemocratic," they wrote in a full-page advertisement in a Port Townsend weekly newspaper.

Berendt said they resigned because the candidate they favor is unlikely to win the party nomination.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com

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